In what could be called the Yukon's own March Madness, the third of four 2007 Canada Winter Games test events scheduled for this month will kick off on Saturday.

The 2006 Northwestel Western Canadian Cross Country Ski Championships are also the largest of the test events so far, with more than 220 skiers from across Canada and Alaska set to hit the trails at the Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club.

The Westerns, which are part of the Haywood NorAm Canada Cup Race Series, and will also serve as the Yukon Championships, will feature a series of three races an individual start classic race on Saturday, a heat sprint race on Sunday and a wave start free technique race on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, Cross Country Yukon confirmed that the field at Westerns will include four members of Canada's Torino Olympic team, along with eight other members of the national team, both senior and junior.

Amanda Amar, Drew Goldsack, Chris Jeffries and Dan Roycroft all competed for Canada at Torino in cross country skiing.

Along with their fellow national team athletes, these skiers are expected to form the core of the upcoming 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

'That's really good news for us,' said Chief of Race Claude Chabot. 'This is the kind of competition we haven't seen in Whitehorse in many years. We have some great skiers here but they're not quite at the Olympic level yet.'

While Whitehorse has hosted the Westerns before, this is the first time it's been part of the Haywood series, so it's a high level of competition. Whitehorse also held a World Cup race in 1981. Chabot expects the calibre of this weekend's events to be somewhere between a normal western championship and a World Cup race.

The most exciting race for spectators is probably the sprint, said Chabot. Groups of four skiers will be going head to head over a short course really fast they'll do a 12-kilometre loop in about two-and-a-half or three minutes. And those who make it past the first round will do that more than once.

'These people are absolutely amazing,' he stated. 'The ability for them to move their bodies so fast over a long period of time is really something.'

While the Olympic athletes will most certainly claim the majority of attention, home town favourite Graham Nishikawa, a member of the Canadian national team, will be back on his turf competing as well. Nishikawa is featured on the posters for the Northwestel Westerns and Chabot said he has a good shot at medaling this weekend.

'Graham has had a phenomenal career. Suddenly, he's burst onto the (senior) national team and he was pretty close to making the Olympic cut this year too, even though he's so young (22 years old). I expect to see great things from Graham.

'He's just coming from the nationals in Thunder Bay (Ont.), so I'm sure he'll be out there looking for blood.'

Nishikawa is actually the leader of the Haywood Canada Cup series so far this season, which means a bunch of fellow ski team members will be gunning for him this weekend, trying to take his leader's bib away.

Nishikawa's younger sister Emily will also be looking to the podium at Westerns. Emily, who was also at the nationals in Ontario last week, will compete in the junior girls category. Chabot said Emily is particularly a strong sprinter, even though she had a tough time at nationals, falling in the sprint event and eliminating herself from medal contention.

'She's had medals at nationals in the past, medals at Arctic Winter Games and medals from last year's Westerns. So I definitely expect her to be a contender up here.'

Another young Yukon up-and-comer who should do well this weekend is Janelle Greer. Greer, who is coming off four gold ulus at the AWG last week, collected gold at last year's Westerns.

Janelle's sister Brittany, who is currently training and attending university in Anchorage, will also be in town this weekend but won't compete due to illness.

Numerous other Yukon Ski Team members will take part in the event, as it is not just for elite skiers. Athletes from nine-years-old to mini-midgets to masters will compete.

Chabot said the Yukon has a lot of young skiers with tons of talent coming up through the system right now, and so does Canada in general.

'Ten years ago, having a Canadian skier in the top 10 would have been unheard of. Now, we're coming up with medals in the Olympics. It's expected now. And it's not just the Becky Scotts and Sara Renners, the veterans, doing well. We've got a lot of new, up-and-coming skiers in Canada as well.'

Chabot is confident Whitehorse and Cross Country Yukon can show the Olympians and all other visitors to the territory what a world class facility Whitehorse has to offer, as well as world class hospitality. Then perhaps they'll want to come back in the near future.

'We've got a good six-month ski season and one of the best facilities in the country. When I go to meetings down south, talk to other ski divisions, they can't believe a little town like Whitehorse, with 20,000 people, has a ski club with 1,000 members. That's quite astonishing.'

This hasn't exactly been a banner year for snow in the territory, especially the capital city, with Mother Nature making it downright difficult for Mount Sima to host the junior national freestyle ski championships earlier this month.

Chabot said there were initial concerns that the cross-country trails would suffer from the lack of snow as well, but the weather seems to be co-operating lately.

'Two weeks ago, I was waking up in the middle of the night, worrying about not having enough snow. Now, the snow is actually super.

' After the last snowfall, we even stockpiled a little bit, in case we need to do some patching up in the stadium.

'Now I'm just worried about it being too cold. But the weather guy tells me it's going to warm up for the weekend.'

More than 100 volunteers have been working countless hours to get the Westerns up and running, helping with both the work on trails and the organizational side. Chabot expects volunteers will be on site from 4 or 5 a.m. to midnight each day this weekend.

'The volunteers are ready and the city is waiting to show the athletes what northern hospitality is all about,' he concluded.